Lou Macari is fearing the worst ahead of Steven N'Zonzi's meeting with Mark Hughes this week.

N'Zonzi's future at Stoke City is in doubt as he has refused to commit himself to a new contract at the Britannia Stadium and it is widely believed that the midfielder is hell-bent on a move away from the club.

However, Stoke are still hopeful of changing reigning Player of the Year N'Zonzi's mind and manager Hughes has set up a meeting with the Frenchman this week to discuss his future.

Stoke great Macari is not too optimistic regarding the outcome of the meeting though and believes that N'Zonzi has already decided to leave Stoke on the advice of his agent.

In his column for the Stoke Sentinel, Macari stated: "Good luck to Mark Hughes when he meets Steven Nzonzi this week - I think he'll need it. I'm assuming Sparky will do everything in his power to persuade Nzonzi that Stoke City is the place for him over the next two or three seasons.

"But I fear Nzonzi's head will already be filled with the promise of riches elsewhere. Gone are the days when a manager could sit down with a player, as I was able to do at Stoke, and the player would seek and listen to your advice because he knew you were giving it for all the right reasons.

"Today, I'm afraid, players will turn to their agent for that advice, not a footballing person like his manager. It's not that surprising either when you consider some players have had the same agent since the age of 15 or 16.

"So they're bound to turn to them first for advice, but whether its good advice is another matter of course."